NOW WITH PICTURES!!
What does the future hold for Baltimore City? No one knows for sure. One way is to examine is to look at the past and present conditions, the other is to look at what's on the drawing board as far as new development. I will attempt to do both while at the same time throwing in my opinion. Sure, the Inner Harbor and its surrounding neighborhoods are nice, but they're aren't my focus. Check out old posts I have added pictures to them!

Twitter

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Development and redevelopment activity is back in full swing around
Downtown and most surrounding areas. H&S Bakery will soon be
vacating its sprawling factory in the middle of Inner Harbor East to so
that new construction can continue, construction on the Central Avenue
bridge into Harbor Point is on track which will allow Harbor Point
construction to commence in just a few short years, there are numerous
Apartment projects coming down the pipeline for Otterbein,
Sharp-Leadenhall, and South Baltimore, Canton Crossing is looking to add
more Office Space, and Downtown proper has been seeing numerous
re-purposing from Office Buildings to Apartments as the demand for
Apartments Downtown has sky-rocketed. In short, new construction in
Baltimore is all around us. Well almost.

One part of
the Greater Downtown Area that hasn't received much attention is State
Center. For those who aren't familiar with State Center it's currently
an outdated Office Park that houses State Offices that's located on both
the Light Rail Line, the Metro, and is just a few blocks from Penn
Station. It is also surrounded by numerous hot areas such as Mount
Vernon, Bolton Hill, Univeristy of Baltimore, MICA, and Station North.
In other words, the location is among the best in the City.In addition
to being located near several good areas of the City, it is also located
near some not so good areas. Upton and McCulloh Homes are also at State
Center's doorstep.

In the early to
mid 2000s, there was a plan to redevelop State Center as 1st class
upscale mixed-use TOD haven complete with new State Offices, Apartments,
Town Homes, and Retail as well as a Boutique Hotel. This would have
been known as the "Eutaw District." Early versions of the plan included
redeveloping the aging McCulloh Homes. The plan was re-drafted and
scaled back not to include McCulloh Homes after Resident backlash.
Although this was a labeled victory for McCulloh Homes Residents, no
plan has come forth to address the decaying conditions at McColloh Homes
since it was excluded from State Center.

The
plan for State Center with or without McCulloh Homes was met with
controversy. With the State act as a Developer, it would have to splash
out a serious amount of cash $1 Billion + and that didn't set well for
people who thought the State was too cash strapped. Had the State been
in better financial shape, there would still be naysayers thinking that a
project like this would be a waste of money. Supporters asked us to
look at the big picture. Taxes and fees generated once this project had
been completed would make the investment more than worth it. In other
words, the State would have to spend money to make money. I was and
still am of the mindset that State Center needs to be redeveloped. My
views on how to accomplish that have changed drastically over the years
however.

First I was on board with the State
investing the money to pay for redeveloping State Center knowing that
the area needs that shot in the arm as well as the return on its initial
investment. As the economy tanked I was still a champion of the
redevelopment effort but I preferred waiting until the economy
stabilized. As time wore on it became clear that this project wouldn't
happen anytime soon if at all. I still supported it. This project not
being funded mean the need for the State to get new Offices was being
unmet.

It was at this time that Downtown's
Office Vacancy Rate was hitting 20% even though projects rich in Office
Space like Harbor Point and Inner Harbor East. With this news, my
support of State Center's redevelopment remained in place however, I
wanted the State to remove itself from the project and sell off the land
to a private developer that they would "bank" until the Market was
ready to absorb it. The State Offices would lease space Downtown in an
effort to reduce the vacancy rate. I wrote a post on this matter called
"Taking the State out of Center."

After the
State Center Buildings were vacated I left their short term fate in the
hands of the Developer who now owned them. They could demolish them and
bank the land until the climate is right for redevelopment, or they
could simply mothball them. I came up with a different plan for the
short term. Remember earlier in the post when I said nothing was being
done to help McColloh Homes? I was hoping you did because it's a pivotal
part of this plan. I know think the best option for the State Center
Buildings in the short term would be to house McCulloh Homes Residents.
After being converted into Apartments, the City would lease the
Buildings from the Developer after selling the land McCulloh Homes sits
on. The Developer would then demolish McCulloh Homes to make them part
of the eventual State Center redevelopment.

Once
development in and around Downtown reaches build out and the demand for
development returns (once new projects are fully leased and/or
purchased) The State Center Buildings now housing McCulloh Homes would
be demolished and the entire site (McCulloh Homes and State Center)
would be redeveloped as an upscale mixed-use TOD haven that the Planners
envisioned all those years ago.

Monday, October 27, 2014

One of my very first posts on this blog was entitled "Old West
Baltimore: Crying For Intervention." It was true then and it remains
true now. However, there are some signs of hope in Old West Baltimore
that if the City and Developers were to take advantage of, Old West
Baltimore would improve greatly. Please keep in mind that as you read
this post, I'm not looking to gentrify Old West Baltimore. I'm simply
trying to provide safe, well built affordable housing and services for
working Families and Seniors.

It's no secret that Old
West Baltimore has been struggling long before World War II. During the
Great Migration, tens of thousands of Black Southerners made Baltimore
their home. What didn't change were the boundaries of Baltimore's Black
Neighborhoods. What resulted was over-crowding, and decaying and
substandard living conditions. As the Black Neighborhood Boundaries went
west of Fulton Avenue, those who could afford it headed west to "second
hand Suburbs" like Edmondson Village where Whites were fleeing to the
newly built suburbs. Those who were forced to stay in Old West Baltimore
were still left in slums albeit less crowded but slums non the less.

The
great solution to the slum like conditions was not great at all. It was
barely a solution. Said solution was to build new public housing high
rises that were charged with ridding the City of its slums. The new high
rises, funded largely by the Federal Government soon became a haven for
crime and drug dealing. Residents were scared to leave their homes and
soon the surrounding Neighborhoods saw the same crime that the high
rises had. Even worse, the Feds who providing funding to build these
high rises, didn't fund their maintenance, which the City could not
afford. Before long, the same slum conditions that the high rises were
meant to eliminate had come back.

Needless to
say, this crime and subsequent decay left Residents fleeing for homes
for safety. This caused some of Baltimore's most concentrated population
loss. In Old West Baltimore, it's not uncommon to see block after block
of vacant row houses without a single Human residing in them. I say
Humans because there are Rodents and Roaches residing in them. Once the
Murphy Homes high rises were torn down and replaced with the lower
density town home development of Heritage Crossing, it was thought that
Old West Baltimore would be on the upswing again.

Heritage
Crossing and similar projects have been great. Sadly they haven't been
able to spread their greatness to neighboring blocks. Although Heritage
Crossing is the most well known successful redevelopment project in Old
West Baltimore, there are others that made some improvements in their
immediate area.

First off, in the early 1990s,
Penn North and Sandtown had modular Town Homes built for affordable Home
ownership. They sold like hot cakes. It seemed that in the 1990s there
was a pent up demand for affordable new construction housing for
purchase in old West Baltimore. As part of the redevelopment in
Sandtown, some existing row homes were preserved if they were in good
enough condition.

Throughout the remainder of
the 1990s and 2000s, very little development occurred in Old West
Baltimore. That pent up demand for affordable new construction in Old
West Baltimore was a fluke. Sure Heritage Crossing sold well but wasn't
that mostly Residents who had lived in Murphy Homes? Nope, most of the
homes in Heritage Crossing are owner occupied but developers had set
their attention on the Harbor and had no intention of diverting their
attention.

Meanwhile in Druid Heights,
Residents and Community Activists were sick of waiting for narrow minded
Developers to turn their attention to Old West Baltimore. With a
plethora of vacant row homes and lots, they formed the Druid Heights
Community Development Corporation and and have slowly but surely been
buying up vacant row homes and lots and building new affordable town
homes for working Families. Examples of these new homes can be seen
along the west side of Pennsylvania Avenue and Gold St. Newer homes are
beginning to pop up along Baker St. as well. Since the Druid Heights
Community Development Corporation isn't a large National Developer, the
pace at which new homes can be constructed may seem slow but they're
making great strides in giving Druid Heights a rebirth.

Now
that we've established that Old West Baltimore has a pent up demand for
affordable new construction for home ownership, I have but one burning
question; Is there the same demand for Rentals? The answer is yes. Just
take a look at the recently completed Penn Square Apartments in Penn
North. They became fully leased in no time. The same developer who
developed Penn Square built a similar project along North Avenue in
Walbrook Junction which has a waiting list. When referencing that
project he said that he could 100 similar projects in Baltimore and they
would be fully leased in no time. So to answer that question, there is a
pent up demand for affordable new construction rentals as well.

Now
that we have discovered these islands of hope in Old West Baltimore,
one might wonder what's next. Given the state of the housing in much of
the area, redevelopment may be the only alternative. There may be the
occasional row of homes that are in good enough shape to rehab and then
rent and sell. Upton's Marble Hill District is one of these places.
Madison Park which separates Upton and Bolton Hill is beginning to
emerge as a great place to rehab a row home at a non inflated price.
Reservoir Hill's row house mansions that were once used as multi-family
dwellings are being restored to their single family grandeur.

Most
of Old West Baltimore however is not Upton's Marble Hill District and
Madison Park. If that were the case, Old West Baltimore would be seeing a
surge of reinvestment that rivals the Harbor. The sad truth is, as is
evidenced by past successes, the only clear solution is redevelopment.
Now we can't redevelop all of Old West Baltimore although it may
ultimately come to that. I have come up with three areas of highly
blighted land that would help give the area a much needed face lift and
perhaps start a small building boom.

First
there's Penn North. As I had indicated before, there are two success
stores here; first there are the Town Homes built in the 1990s and
secondly there are the recently completed Penn Square Apartments. The
redevelopment I'm proposing is the land that separates the two. That
land is still very blighted filled with empty lots and boarded up row
homes. The land that front Pennsylvania Avenue would be higher density
similar to Penn Square while Residential blocks will contain Town Homes.
Whether these new homes are rent or purchase their prices will
affordable to Working Families.

Next there's
Gilmor Homes. Gilmor Homes is a sprawling public housing complex that
sits in the middle of Sandtown. Although the Southeastern portion of
Sandtown has benefited quite nicely from reinvestment and redevelopment,
the same can not be said about the rest of the Neighborhood. Gilmor
Homes has been hot bed for crime and drug activity for decades now and
if redeveloped, it will serve as a catalyst for further investment and
development in Sandtown. The Gilmor Homes redevelopment are will not
only include the complex itself but the surrounding blocks that are all
but vacant. In its place will be a mixed income Community primarily of
Town Homes with a few Apartments with a mixture of rentals and privately
owned homes. There will also by a public housing Senior Building that
will be no taller than five stories. There will also be amenities such
as a Daycare Center, A Community Center, Urban Gardens, as well as a
small Retail area close to the Senior Building.

The
last redevelopment area is in Upton. It creates a triangle bounded by
Pennsylvania Avenue to east, Mosher St. to the north, Fremont Avenue to
the west, and the Heritage Crossing Development to the south. This area
features a very large concentration of vacant row homes and lots that
can only be fixed by a massive redevelopment effort. Fortunately, this
area is large enough to change the image of the Upton Community and may
create a synergy to begin attracting more Residents outside the area.
Similar to Penn North, buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue will be
Apartments while the more residential blocks will consist of Town Homes.
A public housing Senior Building will also be featured here not unlike
the one I have purposed for the redeveloped Gilmor Homes.

If
these three initiatives were put forth, coupled with the existing
synergy, Old West Baltimore's cries for intervention will be heard and
the area successful. Still more work would have to be done, most
specifically in Harlem Park and McColloh Homes and hopefully attracting
better Retail to Pennsylvania Avenue. Perhaps one day Old West Baltimore
will be a sought after address. That would a ways off but right at the
very least the cries for intervention are slowly being heard. And that's
more than I could have said seven years ago.